West Australian police have revealed the elaborate lengths thieves went to in a bid to steal gold from a remote mine.
Several men broke into a room at a South Boulder waste collection compound some time between July 23 and 24 to steal keys for a specialised vacuum sewage truck.
On July 28, it was crashed through processing plant gates at Northern Star Resources' Kanowna Belle mine, a 27km drive from the truck depot.
Gold-bearing liquid was sucked up from a holding dam and two men were then seen fleeing the site in the Suez-branded truck.
Northern Star Resources chief executive Stuart Tonkin suggested the financial loss to his company was unremarkable as the thieves "don't know what they're doing."
"There's really no value. It's a trespassing issue," he told AAP at the Diggers and Dealers Mining Forum on Tuesday.
"It's the most ridiculous thing I've heard and witnessed in Kalgoorlie.
"You've just got to look for the dumbest person in Kalgoorlie and you'll find them."
The thieves would need specialist equipment to extract gold from the liquid and Mr Tonkin suggested it would be worth less than the cost of the gate repairs.
Police have urged anyone with information about the offences to get in touch.
